


The Greatest of Mes

by fresne



Series: Variations on an Equation [13]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sumerian Mythology
Genre: A/B/O, Alpha John, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Historical, Established Relationship, Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, F/F, FemaleOmega/FemaleAlpha, Genderbending, Omega Sherlock, Omega Verse, Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-02-23 09:13:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2542178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fresne/pseuds/fresne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Where Glory-of-Ereshkigal, a priestess of Ereshkigal in Aratta had a religious difference of opinion with Dawn-of-Inanna, a priestess of Inanna in Uruk. Now some might say the difference was over tribute, but in truth the difference of opinion was which had the greater mes, knowledge granted by the goddess each had taken as their own in accordance with their natures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Well, there is an orgy in the market of Uruk and a general misuse of Sumerian mythology and the song "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees. 
> 
>  
> 
> The following may be considered as inspiration for my work and inspiration for my dialogue, possibly even quotes because apt quotes are cool:  
> Technically if this were a retelling of "Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana", there would be fewer tainted wells and more tainted dairy cows. Also, another Sherlock story in which no is one is names Sherlock, John, or Moriarty.  
> BeeGees Staying Alive  
> Still Omegaverse though. FemaleOmega-Sherlock/FemaleAlpha-John

Where Glory-of-Ereshkigal, a priestess of Ereshkigal in Aratta had a religious difference of opinion with Dawn-of-Inanna, a priestess of Inanna in Uruk. Now some might say the difference was over tribute, but in truth the difference of opinion was which had the greater mes, knowledge granted by the goddess each had taken as their own in accordance with their natures.

If it had been politics, then the discussion would have been between the King in Uruk and the King in Aratta. It would have been over tribute. 

But the king of Uruk hardly knew of what occurred. He was at rut with the High Priestess of Inanna for the kiss of Inanna was on her. He was deep in rut and spread well his seed within the High Priestess for to hesitate in giving way to the goddess' kiss was to court her disfavour.

He never knew that Glory-of-Ereshkigal by her mes had placed a bitter curse on the wells that none could drink of them without dying. She had cursed all the wells. 

Now she had meant to do this and leave, but Dawn-of-Inanna had sent her a tablet. "Meet me in the marketplace by the well of Inanna. I have something of yours that you might want back. DoI" This was not the first time they had so clashed, and Glory-of-Ereshkigal was eager to show that her mes was greater.

The tainted well at the centre of the Marketplace sat as a great spider sits, splashed with dark markings to show that none should drink from it.

Around the well in the market, there was singing. The beautiful Betas with their well-oiled curls as they purchased rouge for their cheeks and pearls of their breasts, they sang, "Well you can see by the way I use my walk, I'm Inanna's B: no time to talk. Music loud and bodies warm, I've been thrashed around. Since I was born. And now it is all to the right. It is (missing word). Please Inanna look my way. We can try to understand, Uruk's effect on (missing word)."

The Alphas they were silent. The warriors of Uruk with their a-an-kara weapons. They sang when the chariot of Inanna was driven by the thunder storms of spring.

The beautiful Omegas with their scent of all desiring as they accepted the perfumed gifts of their lovers, they sang, "Whether you are a brother or whether you are a mother, you are staying alive, staying alive. Feel the city heating n' everybody rutting, and we are staying alive, staying alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, staying alive, staying alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, Innnnnnnnaaaaaannnna. And there you are."

Through all of this singing, Glory-of-Ereshkigal was disdainful. Her servants crossed their arms in contempt. She served the goddess who rules in the realm of the dead. She was confident that her mes was the greater.

Dawn-of-Inanna came into the marketplace. Though she was an Omega and had an Omega's spice rich scent, she wore the dark robes of a Beta. On her belt she wore the an-an-kara of an Alpha. She swaggered into the marketplace with her embroidered dark robes gleaming.

Glory-of-Ereshkigal said, "Here we are at last. You and me, Dawn-of-Inanna. The final problem."

Glory-of-Ereshkigal snapped her fingers and her servants made a great clash upon their instruments, and the beautiful Betas and the beautiful Omegas fell silent. Glory-of-Ereshkigal said, "Staying alive. It is so boring, is it not?" She spat her words upon the crowd. "It is merely staying. In the end, there is always Ereshkigal." She pointed at the deep earth. She pointed down. "You worship Inanna, a goddess who went down into the earth and had not the mes to come back out without sacrificing her beloved. I worship the goddess who holds all for all eternity." She paced as a great lizard paces, like the great lizards that haunt the mountain roads and devour travellers. She said, "All this tedious life, I have been searching for the one with the greatest mes to face me. You were the best, and I have beaten you." 

"But I have found your secret." Dawn-of-Inanna tapped a rhythm on the stone of the well. The tainted water echoed it back as all the city watched them. She said, "I know your mes. You played me the rhythm of it. A melody that when played over the water will free it of the curse that you have laid over it."

Glory-of-Ereshkigal laughed loudly. Her servants, the acolytes of Ereshkigal laughed with her. She said, "That was a trick. Now I will show your city that my mes is the greater. Yes, I have tainted the very rich brook that feeds this city's water. It was simple. I paid your own shepherds to do it. Herbs that went into the water the nature of which is hidden from your mes." She grinned as the great lizards grin upon the high roads before they cripple the horses of the travellers. "That is your trouble, Dawn-of-Inanna." She sniffed in the face of Dawn-of-Inanna. She sneered at her scent of all desiring. "You desire a story to be clever when simple is better." She turned to the city and cast her voice out to them. "Now we will see whose mes is greater. The goddess who holds all for all time, or a goddess who went into the ground and had not the mes to come out without sacrificing her beloved."

Dawn-of-Inanna considered what Glory-of-Ereshkigal had said regarding her goddess. She said, "Inanna's bonded, Dumuz, was not that beloved for he did not love. He did not grieve when Inanna was gone. His eyes were bright and shining. His hair was washed. There were no ashes in it for grief while she was under the earth." She considered a site at middle distance as if gazing upon a cedar. "I know from experience that I am loved by one who would wear sackcloth for three years without stopping. Who would put ashes in her hair. Who would streak it across her breasts. Whose eyes would dim without me. Once you tricked me from the side of my own heart, but the heart you made to burn will do so only once."

"Once and sixty times." Glory-of-Ereshkigal pointed at Dawn-of-Inanna. "You shall not overcome my mes, just as you cannot quicken when the kiss of Inanna is on you."

Dawn-of-Inanna laughed. Her dark robes swayed with her laughter. The city laughed with her, the Omegas with their scent of all desiring. "My goddess is a goddess of Love and War, not of childbirth." Dawn-of-Inanna placed the flat of her palm over her belly. She placed the flat of her palm over her a-an-kara weapon. "It was my goddess who gave me the mes keep a child from quickening within me that I might more fully celebrate her," she rolled her hips as a wave, "when she puts her kiss upon me." 

Glory-of-Ereshkigal waved her hand as if to wave away flies. "That is no matter. I will give you a choice. Drink of the water of this well and I will free the city of this taint. If you do not, then all in the city will die. For none can survive without water."

Dawn-of-Inanna held up a beaker. "I think not. For Inanna has given me the mes to call her kiss down. I drank this draught before I came." She let it fall to shatter upon the clay. 

Glory-of-Ereshkigal protested. "That has nothing to do with our conflict. Whether you are in heat or not, the water is tainted." She could smell then the scented change of Dawn-of-Inanna and was proud that it did not affect her. "My goddess has given me the mes to determine what to place in your water that will kill all the people of Uruk if they drink." She raised her arms in her dark robes. "Now drink of the water, and show Uruk that the mes of Ereshkigal is greater." She raised her red rouged hands. "Tell your beloved that you are weaker than I as you go into the earth." She looked with disdain at the a-an-kara weapon at Dawn-of-Inanna's belt.

As she said this, Dawn-of-Inanna's Alpha, Lugalbanda, approached. She carried a tray. It did not require that one had the knowledge of Dawn-of-Inanna to see that that she carried beer and that Lugalbanda was a brewer of beer.

Lugalbanda said, "Will you not drink and end this enmity?" It was well that she put down the tray for it was then that she caught the sweet scent of her Omega. She said, "But the kiss of Inanna should not be upon you. I spread my seed well within you but ten days past." Then she paused in her speech. "Have you been testing the mes Inanna gave you again?"

By Dawn-of-Inanna's smile, Lugalbanda knew it was so. Dawn-of-Inanna placed her a-an-kara weapon on the edge of the well. She removed her belt. She removed the bronze pins that held up her dark robes and stood before the city bare under the bright light of the sun. She gleamed as Inanna gleams with the pearls of her breasts well rouged when she goes out into the bars to find a lover for the day and night.

The beautiful Betas with their well-oiled curls were moved at the sight. The beautiful Omegas with their scent of all desiring were moved also. The Alphas stood frozen. 

They all watched as Dawn-of-Inanna removed the pins that held up the robes of Lugalbanda, until she stood bare before the city. She gleamed as the warrior who is chosen by Inanna gleams with reflected light. They saw Lugalbanda kiss Dawn-of-Inanna as a hummingbird kisses a flower in a wind where the flower kisses back. They saw Dawn-of-Inanna press her lips to the pearls of Lugalbanda's breasts as a butterfly brushes all of its body against a flower in the field.

Lugalbanda gave her praises as the a-an-kara within her body emerged. She cried out, "Dawn-of-Inanna, you amaze me." She cried out, as the fine soft micu hairs moved in constant praise of Inanna. As the lips of the lovers met in fierce praises that were like the kisses of Anzu birds who push the storms before them in the sky. It seemed to those watching that lighting crashed in the marketplace. Thunder rolled as the two moved against each other as micu and picu. As Lugalbanda lifted Dawn-of-Inanna to sit upon the side of the tainted well in the marketplace that Lugalbanda might be well situated between her thighs.

Glory-of-Ereshkigal was by her Beta blood not moved by this. But still she protested. "This will in no way help you. My mes is greater than yours. Drink the water and die, and I will free your city of its taint."

Dawn-of-Inanna did not reply. Rather she gasped as Lugalbanda pressed her a-an-kara into her. Dawn-of-Inanna sang her praises then. She praised the a-an-kara within her. "Praise Inanna, you are speaking within me. You are singing your praise to life with your movement. Sweet Inanna, your micu caress me at my centre, I can feel each of them. Praise Inanna, your lips upon my breasts rouse me to joy." She gave her praises to Inanna. Dawn-of-Inanna gave loud praises. 

Lugalbanda gave praises in other ways with lips and hands and incoherent cries.

Glory-of- Ereshkigal stood in the heat of the marketplace. She looked at the people, who were giving praise to Inanna. 

The people of Uruk threw down Inanna's sacred flowers and the sweet perfume of Inanna filled the air. 

The beautiful Betas with their well-oiled curls sought out the warriors and wielded a-an-kara weapons upon them. They pulled the pins from their robes that they might stand bare in the street.

The beautiful Omegas with their well painted lips sought out the warriors and used their a-an-kara weapons upon them. They pulled the pins from their robes that they might lay them down and rest upon them. The air was full of the sweet perfume of Inanna. All were coupling in the marketplace. All were at praise of Inanna.

To Glory-of-Ereshkigal, it was hot and it was dull. 

There was none to praise Ereshkigal but Glory-of- Ereshkigal and her servants. She considered killing one of her servants in the square. She considered splashing their blood on the street, but it was too hot. She poured herself some beer from the tankard. She sat on the edge of the tainted well next to where Dawn-of-Inanna and Lugalbanda were loudly coupling, and drank, confident that her mes was more powerful than that of Dawn-of-Inanna's.

Her servants drank from the tankard as well.

Dawn-of-Inanna gave her praises for the micu-catching a web within her. She pulled her a-an-kara weapon and used it most lewdly within Lugalbanda, whose voice gave her praises whether it was for being micu or picu could not be said.

In the heat of the day, Glory-of-Ereshkigal found her eyes growing sleepy. 

When she woke it was in a field outside the gates of Uruk. There was a tablet upon her chest. "Thank you for the pleasure of the experience. Inanna has blessed me with the mes to make you spill your secrets while drunk on beer and the scent of heat. For this was how Inanna got the god Iridu to spill his mes when he drank her beer, and so his mes became hers. You yourself told me what I needed to know to free the wells of taint. My mes is the greater. DoI."

It was with disgruntled steps that Glory-of-Ereshkigal went back to Aratta. Still she was full of the knowledge of the strength of the army of Uruk.

However, in the war that came with the spring, Aratta was unprepared for the strength of the a-an-kara weapons of Uruk. They were unprepared for the swift force of Lugalbanda, who had been given a blessing by the Anzu birds and Inanna. Who had blessed by the kiss of Dawn-of-Inanna.

Inanna smiled her blessings on the city of Uruk indeed.


	2. [podfic] The Greatest of Mes

Size: 18:37, 6.53  
Music Credit: Stayin' Alive, the Bee Gees, certainly no credit to me, I can’t sing.  
Image Credit: Ancient Assyrian Girls by Scargut the Gutless

[Download podfic](http://fresne.podbean.com/mf/web/ykrwfn/TheGreatestofMes.mp3)

**Author's Note:**

> If after reading my fiction here, you would like to read more about me and my writing check out my profile.


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